Few lakes in Germany have as strong a hold on the imagination as the Stechlinsee. It is deep, nearly seventy metres, and so clear that you can see far down through the water, with a bed of white sand and a ring of beech forest around the shore. Fontane made it the setting for his last novel, Der Stechlin, in which the lake is said to stir whenever something great happens in the world, a kind of seismograph of history. It is a beautiful idea, and standing on the shore you can almost believe it.
The lake lies north of Berlin, in the lake district around Fürstenberg, and its clean water is partly an accident of history. For decades, East Germany ran its first nuclear power station on the shore of a neighbouring lake, using Stechlinsee water for cooling, and the plant shut in 1990. Today the lake is a protected nature reserve and a research site for freshwater ecology, and its water is among the cleanest in the region.
Swimming is possible at the village of Neuglobsow, where a public beach has a jetty and a kiosk, and the water is cold and crystalline. The village also has a small glass museum recalling the glassworks that once operated nearby, and a few cafes serving smoked fish and cake. In autumn the beeches turn copper, and a walk around part of the lake is a pleasure.
The ride here is mostly through forest on quiet roads, with gentle curves and occasional cobbles in the villages. Be careful on wet leaves in autumn and for wild boar and deer at dawn and dusk. Fuel is available in Fürstenberg, about eight kilometres away, and it is wise to fill up before you head out into the forest.
Come on a weekday in early summer or in September, when the water is warm enough to swim and the crowds have thinned. Sit by the water and listen to the wind in the beeches. It is a place that rewards stillness.